We thank Stefan Dercon for his typically insightful comments on our think-piece on asset thresholds and social protection.
It is reassuring and unsurprising that we agree on most key points: (1) assetthresholds and poverty traps are a reality in at least some contexts, (2) the resulting policy implications should not be understated as social protection, done right, then offers extremely high returns, (3) risk acquires particular salience in this setting and thus risk management and social protection merit more careful attention by both researchers and development practitioners, and (4) there is a crucial practical and conceptual difference between protecting the vulnerable from a collapse into destitution and helping the poorest to transform their long-term prospects.
Indeed, there is often a difficult trade-off between these two worthy activities, one we should not shy away from by falsely suggesting – as so much of the current literature does – that the two objectives are perfectly coincident. The development community needs to engage in more substantive discussion about whether and how to perform triage in interventions.
